No Lettuce Italian Chopped Salad
Published 3/9/2025
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Get outta here, lettuce! There’s a new salad in town, and it’s this No Lettuce Italian Chopped Salad. This delicious and hearty salad is loaded with all of your favorite Italian flavors without a single leaf of lettuce in sight.
We love serving this salad over a 1/2 cup of cottage cheese for an extra protein and flavor boost 😋.
Fresh, tangy, salty, savory… this Italian chopped salad has got it all. Made with a mix of crunchy vegetables, meaty salami and prosciutto, creamy mozzarella cheese, and zesty Italian dressing, its inspired by our favorite chopped salad in town here in the Twin Cities — Punch Pizza’s chopped Italian salad.
Three elements make up this salad, and it’s super easy to prepare:
- Mixing the vegetables
- Making the dressing
- Cooking the prosciutto.
Bring it all together at the end, and omg it is so dang good.
Why No Lettuce?
No hard feelings, lettuce. We initially made this salad with greens, too, but we found that the other ingredients were so flavorful and hearty that they didn’t need the extra greens. It reminded us of all the reasons we ❤️ our OG no lettuce salad recipe.
Variations & Substitutions
If you can’t justify not having greens, feel free to toss in 4 oz. of spring mix or chopped romaine to the salad!
Make this recipe a pasta salad by tossing in 4 oz. of cooked pasta. You may want to add a little extra dressing if you go this route.
Don’t have garbanzo beans? Feel free to substitute any type of bean for the garbanzo beans.
Storage
This salad is best enjoyed fresh, but if you have leftovers, store them in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. We recommend storing the dressing separately and adding it just before serving to prevent the salad from getting soggy.
What To Serve With This Italian Chopped Salad
Go full Italian mode and enjoy this salad with a classic pasta dish like this Whole Wheat Sun Dried Tomato Basil Pasta or Easy Chicken Alfredo. You can also pair it with a cozy soup! Our Olive Garden Zuppa Toscana would be perfect.
No Lettuce Italian Chopped Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 1.5 cups shredded carrots
- ¼ red onion, thinly sliced
- 15 oz. garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 pint cherry tomatoes, halved
- ⅓ cup chopped pepperoncini
- 1 cup salami, matchsticked
- 1 cup crumbled cheese, we used mozzarella cheese
- 2 oz. prosciutto
Dressing
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1.5 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- 1.5 teaspoons honey
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ½ teaspoon cracked black pepper
Instructions
- Add the carrots, onion, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, pepperoncini, salami, and crumbled cheese to a bowl. Toss to combine. Set aside.
- Prepare the dressing. Add the ingredients for the dressing to a bowl and whisk to combine.
- Heat a large skillet over high heat. Add the prosciutto to the pan and cook it until it becomes brown and crispy. Remove from the heat and let cool to become very crispy.
- Add the dressing to the salad and toss to combine.
- Serve the salad topped with crispy prosciutto.
Tips & Notes
- If you want to add greens, feel free to toss in 4 oz. of spring mix to the salad.
- Make this recipe a pasta salad by tossing in 4 oz. of cooked pasta.
- Feel free to substitute any type of bean for the garbanzo beans.
Watch It
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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Photography: photos taken in this post are by Erin from The Wooden Skillet.
